Facebook vies with a number of social media peers around Asia, competing for attention in Japan against Naver’s Line app and with LinkedIn and Pinterest in India. Authorities in China block access to Facebook altogether, effectively handing the market to domestic competitors. But Zuckerberg's behemoth -- now boasting more than 2.2 billion monthly active users worldwide -- has few peers in Taiwan.
This week Facebook Asia Pacific VP Dan Neary announced the expansion of a year-old project that trains Taiwanese business people to make the most of its pages, clubs and other vehicles for audience engagement. Facebook will allocate an undisclosed sum to train thousands of entrepreneurs in maximizing business exposure, Neary and colleagues announced at an event in Taipei. Neary places today's Facebook penetration at 97% of Taiwan's internet users, one of its highest rates anywhere.
The program called “Made by Taiwan” helps the island government’s cause of attracting more attention overseas for its growing total of 1.38 million small or mid-sized firms, while boosting Facebook’s own income through advertising spend.
"For Taiwan companies, Facebook is the one of best digital channels to address local and global customers, especially for retailers," says Shirley Tsai, a research manager in Taipei with the market analysis firm IDC. "For Facebook, that more marketers interact with customers through FB means this company can gain more money from advertisement and paid services."
Facebook reported net income of $15.9 billion last year, up steadily from $2.9 billion four years earlier. Revenues more than tripled over that period to around $40 billion. The "bulk" of that $40 billion came from digital advertising, much of which targets individual users based on their personal information, Investopedia says.
Easy market access
Facebook was already scoping out Taiwan in 2014 to grow paid services aimed at businesses. The company has faced little serious competition in Taiwan since rival social network Wretch was closed in 2013 by parent company Yahoo. Facebook's purchase of the messaging app WhatsApp that year helped bolster it against Line, which is also popular in Taiwan.
Like other developed Asian markets, Taiwan offers high broadband and smartphone penetration exceeding the total population of 23 million. Back then Taiwan had the world’s highest per capita Facebook penetration rate at 15 million active users per month, local media reported.
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Facebook indicated last year it was going all out to understand how small- and medium-sized businesses use digital tools as more than 60 million of them were using Facebook Pages. About 1.2 billion Facebook users are connected to at least one business overseas, Neary said Thursday, citing an incentive for companies in Taiwan to reach out.
Over the past year, Facebook has worked with the nonprofit Taiwan External Trade Development Council to train personnel in digital sales. This year, it will keep adding resources with one eye on expansion through 2020, the company’s public relations firm said. It aims to train 50,000 Taiwanese people and 15,000 companies by then.
In Taiwan, the entrepreneurs will be able seek guidance from a women’s business forum, another for university students and Facebook’s Oculus virtual-reality tools for product promotions. Facebook aims to connect 1,500 Taiwanese firms with companies in the Silicon Valley, which matters because of Taiwan's own high-tech history. The island has been a world consumer electronics hub since the 1980s.
“Taiwan is a market that Facebook cares about a lot,” the company's Taiwan and Hong Kong general manager, Fei Yu, said after the September 27 event. “We want to use technology, economy and talent to stimulate exchanges with outstanding founders to help these companies grow, working together.”
Taiwan’s thirst for foreign exposure
Facebook's offer to link local entrepreneurs with overseas markets means enough to Taiwan’s leadership that President Tsai Ing-wen showed for the same event. “They are our hidden power, our small- to medium-sized companies,” Tsai said. “I believe social media can step up their exposure. Taiwan has goods that are economically competitive.”
Her government wants to move Taiwan past historic reliance on hardware contract work to do more with software such as mobile apps and internet-of-things technology.
To that end, in 2015 the government set up Taiwan Startup Stadium, an agency that trains company founders to do business abroad and make connections in other countries. The government also plans by 2023 to finish the groundwork for an Internet-of-Things development zone called Asian Silicon Valley.
Over the past year, Taiwan has secured a number of investment pledges, largely for R&D and electronics manufacturing, from major U.S. tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm. Facebook officials declined to say Thursday whether they would look to invest similarly in Taiwan.
